Forget about Chan and focus on realistic long-term goals

By ELIAS MAKORI

In Summary

The country has reverted to its default campaign mode following the Supreme Court of Kenya’s nullification of the Presidential election.

For the next two months or so, focus will be on spirited presidential campaigns and, most certainly, the pressure will be on the exchequer to release additional funds — and urgently at that ­— for the fresh electoral process.

Of course, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission must have budgeted for such eventuality, but we all know the national coffers will nonetheless also take some beating in the process.

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The country has reverted to its default campaign mode following the Supreme Court of Kenya’s nullification of the Presidential election.

For the next two months or so, focus will be on spirited presidential campaigns and, most certainly, the pressure will be on the exchequer to release additional funds — and urgently at that ­— for the fresh electoral process.

Of course, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission must have budgeted for such eventuality, but we all know the national coffers will nonetheless also take some beating in the process.

Meanwhile, with health, security and infrastructure high on the government’s financial agenda, there’s no doubt sports will not feature near the top of Finance Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich’s bulging in-tray.

I’m naturally not a pessimist, but after carefully studying the current scenario, I don’t see Kenya hosting the Africa Nations Championships (Chan).

Let’s forget about it. As usual, we left it too late and we are now clutching at straws, hoping the Confederation of African Football (Caf) will be generous enough to offer us “extra time” to get our house in order.

Successive regimes have given sports a raw deal and it was, therefore, pleasantly surprising that the Jubilee government pulled out all stops to allow Nairobi successfully host the IAAF World Under-18 Championships last month.

I say “successfully” with a lot of reservations, though, as after having put up a splendid show at the August 12-16 championships, quite a number of service providers and individuals who contributed to the success of these championships are yet to be paid their dues.

Volunteers, who were exceptionally resourceful during the championships, had to stage sit-ins for the Local Organising Committee’s purse-strings to loosen up and pay them, while members of various committee are still pushing for their hard-earned payments.

While Sports Kenya maintain there are no funds coming through from their parent ministry in charge of sports to settle outstanding debts for the Under-18s providers and committee members, they, ironically, claim cash flows are good enough for the country to be ready for Chan.

Really?

Such inconsistencies make it difficult to trust any assurances that Kenya will be ready to host the Chan, a nondescript championship that counts for little.